Dr Colin P. Clarke

Dr Colin P. Clarke is one of the leading analysts of contemporary terrorism, with particular expertise in how violent organisations adapt under pressure, finance themselves, build international reach, and intersect with organised crime, proxy warfare, and geopolitics.

Dr Clarke currently serves as Executive Director of The Soufan Center, having previously held roles as Director of Research at The Soufan Group and Senior Research Fellow at The Soufan Center. Before this, he was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and spent a decade at RAND as a senior political scientist, where he led studies on ISIS financing, the future of terrorism and transnational crime, and lessons from insurgencies since the end of the Second World War. He is also an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) – The Hague, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, an Associate Fellow at the Global Network on Extremism and Technology, and a member of the Network of Experts at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

A prolific and widely respected scholar, Dr Clarke has published several books on terrorism and armed conflict, including:

• Terrorism, Inc.: The Financing of Terrorism, Insurgency, and Irregular Warfare (2015)
• Terrorism: The Essential Reference Guide (2018, editor)
• After the Caliphate: The Islamic State and the Future Terrorist Diaspora (2019)
• The Mediterranean Connection: Criminal Networks and Illicit Economies in North Africa (2024, co-authored)
• Moscow’s Mercenaries: The Rise and Fall of the Wagner Group (forthcoming, 2026)

His recent work has explored Hezbollah’s diversified funding streams, the increasingly decentralised or “franchise-like” Islamic State, the enduring ISIS threat, whether Hamas could become a more global threat, and the continued importance of non-jihadist threats such as far-right extremism. Across that work, Dr Clarke has consistently shown how terrorism today is shaped by adaptation, resilience, and convergence between militant groups, criminal enterprise, and wider geopolitical conflict.

Dr Clarke has testified before the US Congress on numerous occasions, appears frequently in the media on terrorism and national security, and serves on the editorial boards of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Perspectives on Terrorism. He received his Ph.D. in international security policy from the University of Pittsburgh and has briefed his research at a wide range of national and international security forums.